WASHINGTON – The Trump Administration announced a new plan to incentivize undocumented migrants to leave the country voluntarily.
On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security unveiled a new program offering to cover the travel costs and pay a $1,000 stipend to those who self-deport using the Customs and Border Patrol mobile app.
The program is the latest step in the Trump Administration’s push to deport millions of undocumented migrants from the country, a core promise made by the Republican president during the campaign.
In the three months since President Donald Trump took office, federal agencies, including Immigration Customs Enforcement, have ramped up operations to arrest and deport those suspected of being in the country illegally.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem touted the new incentives for self-deportation as a safer and less costly method of executing the President’s immigration agenda.
According to data from DHS, the average cost of arresting, detaining and expelling a migrant is more than $17,000. Noem claimed covering travel costs and paying out the stipends would be 70% less expensive for taxpayers.
“If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest,” Noem wrote in a statement.
While speaking to the press in the Oval Office, President Trump said those who self-deport will remain eligible to reenter the United States legally, but cautioned those who are arrested and deported will forfeit their chance to return.
It will give them a path to coming back into the country," President Trump said. “If they miss that limit, they’re going to be taken out of our country, and they will never get a path.”
Democrats have been highly critical of the Trump Administration’s approach to immigration policy, accusing the President of skirting due process while carrying out deportations.
As of last week, DHS claimed it had deported more than 142,000 undocumented migrants since President Trump took office in January.